Brewed for City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA in celebration of their seventh anniversary. Magnificent Seven uses seven different malts, seven different hops with seven different additions, and is 7.7% ABV.

T - Almost perfect balance of malts and hops. Definitely dominant hop flavor with an incredibly complex profile. Very delicious. One of the best tasting DIPAs I have ever had.

M - Extremely smooth and easy to drink. The head retains the nice carbonation and flavor throughout.

O - Like I said, clearly one of the best tasting DIPAs I have ever had. I bought 6 bottles at the 7th Anniversary at City Beer Store in SF. I had one on that day too, but did not take notes. I decided to put this up against 3 other DIPAs in a blind taste test on my birthday. The first place DIPA, which I thought was the Mag 7, turned out to be PtE. But the Mag 7 was a very, very close 2nd. The other two unnamed local DIPAs were crap next to these two. Since this was brewed only once, for the CBS anniversary, I doubt I will ever get to try it again, so for that, I would rate it higher than PtE.

With a slight hiss I uncap bottle #1 labeled drink first, fridgeA - It pours a nice golden orange with a small amount of bubbles that ring the glass.S - At first a wonderful grapefruit and mango blast hits your nose followed some herbal hops, there is a bit of the maltness coming through as well.T - The taste is pretty fantastic, lots of mango and grapefruit, there is a bit of malty sweetness in the finish. its not as malty as i'd guess for a DIPA but guessing thats what this is.M/D - Very smooth with a decent amount of carbonation. Knowing this is around 8%, this is very easy to drink. One of those that you could have a bunch on a hot day and end up face down by night time.I'm really not sure. A CA guy, first thought is RR, but this has a different taste. Alpine comes to mind but I don't think its one i've had before. So lets do the reveal…

Alpine Magnificent Seven

Well I was halfway there. Never had this beer and if I lived close to Alpine, I'd be more broke than I am now. As I burp I get this giant mango flavor like I just took a big bite of fruit. What a good way to start the Blind Bif.

Big thanks to eyebereej for sending this one! Reviewed from notes. Poured from bomber into a TBBC pint glass.

A: Deep gold to light brown, hazy with some hop floaters in suspension. One finger's worth of white head and moderate visible carbonation.

S: Big delicious hops - dank, grassy, citrus, pine, tropical, a bit of cat pee and melon. Just a hint of a bready malt backbone in the aroma.

T: Follows the nose almost exactly, except the bready malt character is significantly more prominent than the aroma would suggest - but still there is not doubt this is hop-dominated. There is minimal to no caramel character in the malt, but the earthy malty sweetness. The tropical fruit and juicy melon hop character become more prominent in the flavors. This is really good. Despite the amalgam of hop flavors, the bitterness in the hang fades quickly. There must have been a lot of late addition hops going in here.

M: Medium body but lighter than many other DIPAs. Sticky mouthfeel, mild alcohol presence only, and good carbonation sensation.

O: This was really, really good. Excellent DIPA, though the ABV is nearly IPA - which makes the amount of hop flavors and aromas more impressive. By far the best beer from Alpine I've had so far. I wish they disclosed the hops and malt bill on the label, just to sate my curiosity. Highly recommended.

Appearance: Pours a murky dark brown with yellow highlights. Has about a 2 finger slightly yellow head when pouring out 12 oz.

Smell: The smell has so much depth. Immediate pineapple and tropical hop character with a nice light earthiness, absolutely awesome. Supporting the hops is a nice sweet malt character. This is truly world class.

Taste: A little sweetness but finishes dry. The hop character is very tropical, with pineapple as the most prominent. There is an explosion of flavors in the mouth on this one, and they are all competing but no one quite takes over. The malt character is really nice and supportive, I really feel that there is rye in here and it adds a nice spicy character that compliments the earthiness.

Mouthfeel: Perfect IPA mouthfeel. Nice and thick which I think is helped by what I can only assume is rye in the malt bill. Perfect carbonation. Excellent!

Overall: What a great, complex beer to celebrate city beer stores 7th anniversary. This is an absolutely awesome beer and I wish I had another.